Clovers for the Moment
by XBreathing-ColorX
Summary: A SasukeXOC modern one-shot.  Kimi's had strong feelings for her best friend Sasuke for a while now, but has always been too afraid to admit it to herself or him. What will happen when she finally gathers the strength to say something?


"Are you coming or what?" He asks excitedly. I couldn't help but feel the adrenaline starting to pump through my veins at the tone of his voice. It was rare for him to sound so eager for something.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be there," I reply with a slight laugh.

"I'll see you there then!" He doesn't wait for my reply, only jogs away from me in the general direction of his house. I smile pleasantly to myself as I watch his figure slowly lessen until there was nothing left. As I make my way home, I begin to wonder why it's so important for me to be there, _me_ in particular. I'd been there as he asked his friends to come, and his words were always so calm and reassuring. As if he honestly didn't care if they'd show up or not. And I honestly had a bit of an impression that he really wouldn't care. But when he'd asked me…when he asked me a small spark was ignited in his eyes, the enthusiasm just bubbling in his words.

My imagination was running amuck as I thought of all the endless possibilities. I ready myself for the party, fixing my hair up into a high ponytail but letting a few strands hang free, and I applied cover-up to hide my many, many, blemishes, and even wore contacts instead of my usual glasses. I slide into my nicest and also newest pair of jeans and put on a fresh, white, V-neck. When I'd originally bought it, the spandex fight comfortably to my skin and accented my not-so-developed curves. But after so many washes the stretch begins to dull and become more like a regular T-shirt. But as I looked in the mirror, I figured Old Faithful had enough life in her for one more run. So slipping on my relatively new converse, I flip off my bedroom light and head out the door and to Sasuke's house.

By the time I'd arrived at his front door, lights illuminated his windowsills and loud music flooded through the walls. I take a glimpse down at my watch to see it's already 10:30. When I left my house, it was only 9 o' clock. Since when was this an hour and a half walk? Shaking the thought from my mind, I knock as loud as I can on the door, hoping that somehow it was heard over the booming music. And, much to my luck, it wasn't. I give the door another firm pounding but still nobody greets me. "Damn it…" I mumble lowly to myself. For the third time I rapidly slam my knuckles against the wood, all to no avail.

My eyes narrow into slits as I walk through the grass and over to his window. I stare through the glass and look around at all the non-dancing bodies. They knew damn well that they could hear the damn door! I tap my finger against the glass, trying to capture someone's attention. Unfortunately, it was the wrong someone. Karin looks over her shoulder and glowers at me through the windowpane. Ignoring her hateful glare, I point towards the door and shout, "Can you get the door?" For a moment a look of confusion splashes in her eyes, then a wave of total evil washes over her face. She walks over to the window and stares at me for a second. I look at her, wondering what it was she was doing. But when her hands grabbed onto either curtain I realized her plan. "No Karin don't-" But she snatches the satin drapes over the glass before I finish my statement, blocking my view of the inside, and blocking everyone else's view of me.

"You bitch!" I curse, slapping my palm against the glass. My hands placed on my hips I turn around to find a mother swiftly walking her child down the sidewalk, her hands placed firmly over the kid's ears. Regret floods my veins as I quickly stammer out, "I'm so sorry ma'am! I meant no disrespect to you or your child!" But the woman only shot me daggers with her eyes before rounding a corner and leaving my view. Closing my eyes I lower myself down onto the grass and lean against the outside of his house. I press my hands into the earth and run my fingers smoothly through the cool, deep green blades. I tilt my head back so it's resting against the wall and stare up at the night sky. It was filled with dozens of sparkling stars, lighting up the darkness in such a way as to make the world below seem empty and hallow.

As seconds evolved into minutes, and then became more, I found myself lying out thoughtlessly in his lawn, gazing up into the raven night sky, gawking at the sparkling diamonds imbedded into the darkness. When a shooting star flew into my view, I felt my jaw fall open. "No way!" I whisper to myself. Quickly I snapped my eyes shut and spoke lowly, "I wish Sasuke would come outside and find me…" but when I opened my eyes once again, the falling star was gone. I pursed my lips, hoping that I'd spoken quickly enough. Then I connected my hands behind my head, gently closed my eyelids, and drifted off into sleep.

Voices echoed in the darkness of my dreamless slumber, but the words spoken were murky. "Oh my…" and "…who the hell…" but when I heard his voice speak, "Kimi?" I suddenly found myself whirling, almost too quickly, back into consciousness. Sitting up in a daze, my hands fall limp to my sides. The feeling of a thousand needles poked at the flesh on my palms. "God are you okay?" He asked, kneeling down beside me and placing his hand comfortably on my back.

"Me? Pft," I scoffed. "Of coarse I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" He only looked at me with disbelief before standing up and yanking me up onto my feet. "Thanks," I breathe.

"No problem," He replies coolly. I look around at all the people walking away from his house and to their cars or down the sidewalk.

"Is the party over?" I ask, disappointment swelling in my voice.

"Yeah, it is. Where were you?" Panic stricken, I quickly stutter out a lie.

"Well you see, I kind of… forgot the way here. And when I finally did find my way, I was really tired. So I sat down in the grass, only planning on taking a short break. But I guess that break turned into a full on snooze-fest…" I rub at the back of my head nervously, trying to ignore the tingling in my palms. I waited for him to say something-_anything_, but after a few moments had passed, I began to think he didn't believe it. "Hey!" I exclaim, quickly trying to change the subject. "I really have to use the bathroom so I'll be… yeah." And with that I speed-walked through the dispersing crowd and into his house. Few people lingered inside, and I got the feeling they were only still there because they were completely out of their right mind.

Locking myself into his bathroom, I turn on the faucet and place my numb hands under the running water. Leaning over onto my arms, I drop my head and sigh. "Damn it!" I curse under my breath. I couldn't believe I'd missed the entire party. Every freaking second of it. I splash the water onto my face and ran my fingers through my hair, pulling the hair tie out in the process. My flaming red hair fell down my back in frayed waves, looking frizzed out and completely untamed. I turn off the water and look at myself in the mirror. The cover up I'd put on had smudged off and now I had strange blotches on my skin. My usually chipper, emerald eyes now seemed a lackluster, watery green and my freckles seemed to be overly noticeable. "You're a hideous _beast_!" I insult the reflection in the mirror.

No longer being able to stand my own image, I dry my face off on a towel then walk back out and into his surprisingly clean house. Considering a teenage party had just been thrown here not 10 minutes ago, this place really didn't look that back. I was honestly shocked. As I make my way back to the open front door I see Sasuke hugging a curvaceous beauty. She leans out of the hug to reach up onto her tiptoes and peck him on the cheek. Then she walked away. Now, granted, I was a bit of a distance away from him, but it looked to me like his skin had turned one tenth of a shade redder…

"Hey," I greet, stepping out of the doorway and up to him. He looks over to me, a slightly dazed expression in his eyes.

"Oh hey…" he mumbled, and then looked back in the direction the girl had walked off in. He stared absently out into the darkness, as if he could see something that I didn't. We both sat in the rigid silence for a long while. Finally I broke and said,

"Alrighty then!" He redirects his attention at me again, slightly startled. It was almost as if he'd forgotten I was even standing there. I grab onto my forearm and look down at the ground, kicking a small pebble. "I guess I'll be…going then."

"So soon? But you just got here," he commented. I roll my eyes, thinking of how much of a lie that really was.

"Yeah well, you know me! I'm a busy as a bee!" He smirked and shook his head at my corny rhyme. I grin at his amusement, pleased with myself.

"Whatever! Leave me to clean up this mess all by myself then!" He gripped, gesturing towards his house. I coil back in mock horror.

"Oh no! Not water rings on the _coffee_ table! Somebody save us all!" He shook his head at my heavy sarcasm but let out one breathy laugh. "No but I really should start heading back home before the creepers start to come out." We both look off into the darkness, our minds thinking of all the weird things that go bump in the night.

"Alright," he sighed in defeat. "I'll see you Monday at school then," he stated, rather than asked. We both knew I'd be there. I was way too much of a geek to miss school. Especially on a Monday! That's when we were being introduced to new lessons! Only a fool would skip on a Monday.

"Yeah, see ya' around…" And with that, I quickly walked off down the sidewalk and into the shadows of the night.

"Hey!" A voice speaks in my ear. I jumped, slightly startled at the foreign sound. I look back, pushing my glasses up my nose.

"Oh, hi Sasuke," I greet warmly with a smile.

"What are you working on?" He asks, taking a seat next to me.

"Nothing you'd be interested in," I say simply, looking back down at my graphing pad.

"Try me," he persists. I glance back up at him, disbelieving, then sigh.

"Alright then, I'm designing a blueprint for this diorama I'm making…" A moment of silence slips by and I halfway smile, knowing he wouldn't care.

"Is it for school?" He asks, leaning back in the chair.

"Is it ever?" I say, pushing a lock of hair behind my ear. He grunts at my response.

"Good point… So what's it about this time?"

"Nothing special…" I murmur, sketching a line across the page.

"Really now? Last time you said that you were making a to scale, exact replica of the Amazon Rainforest…"

"Shh! Quit talking!" I whisper urgently, ignoring his comment.

"Fine, just as soon as you tell me what you're making," he presses.

"Please Sasuke! People are studying!" I speak lowly but swiftly, gesturing to all the concentrating people. He glances around the dull library, a look of slight amusement in his eyes.

"Studying, or looking at porn magazines?" Slapping the pencil down onto the table I look at him in disbelief.

Really Sasuke? Really?" He smirks at my reaction and sits back up in his chair, leaning his elbows on the desk.

"What? You know it's true." Rolling my eyes I roughly push my papers into a stack and slid them into my folder. Slipping the folder into my shoulder bag I stand up and walk away. "Oh good, you got bored of that place too," he jokes, quickly falling into step beside me.

"No, you just ruined my concentration." I push out the library doors and out into the busy hallway.

"Same difference," he shrugs. I stop in front of my locker and turn my attention to him.

"Is there something you wanted? Or are you just hear to bother me?" I ask bitterly. The corner of his mouth twitched, wanting to pull up into a smirk. He leaned against the lockers and folded his arms over his chest.

"Actually, there is something I wanted." I raise my eyebrow curiously.

"Really now, and what might that be?" I sigh, facing forward and spinning the dial on my lock.

"Well I was wondering if after school today you wanted to grab something to eat." I felt my heart flutter in my chest at his words.

"Oh…Well I guess I could…" I hush, pulling open the rusty locker door.

"Great, there's someone I'd like you to meet…" Instantly my heart calms, disappointment sweeping over me. Snatching out my Trigonometry textbook I slam closed the door and say,

"You know what, I just remembered I had a test to study for in History."

"The test that's two weeks away…?" He questions slyly, putting me in an awkward position. I look at him and flash a quick smile.

"Sorry! School must come first!" Then I turn away and quickly make my way through the bustling students.

"Maybe some other time then?" I hear him call to me. I bit down on my lip, my eyebrows pulling together.

"Maybe…" I say is such a voice I doubt he even heard me. But he says nothing further, leaving me alone to go to my next class.

I pull the gallon of milk from the freezer and place it into my basket before continuing down the isle of groceries. I glance down at the list in hand and over all the items. "Bread, peanut butter, milk, butter, canned soup, paper towels, bananas…" I read off to myself.

"Looks like you got everything," a familiar voice says beside me.

"Hi Sasuke," I breath, not needing to look to see who it was.

"Hey," he replies. I make my way to the check out isle in the front of the store as he asks, "Mom got you running errands?"

"How'd you know…" I murmur sarcastically.

"Lucky guess," he says, ignoring my sarcasm.

"What are you doing here?" I question, placing my items onto the conveyer belt.

"Same thing you are," he replies coolly. I glance over at him for the first time, sizing the pint of ice cream in his hand. I look at him for a second longer, trying to find the motivation behind it, before looking away in defeat.

"Right…" He places his single item down with the rest of mine, a very annoying thing to do in my eyes. "Do you mind? I'm not trying to pay for my stuff and yours." I say, pushing his ice cream back a few inches.

"Why not? I'll give you the money," he retorts. I roll my eyes and say,

"If you got the money then you wouldn't need to buy it with my things."

"Maybe not, but it sure would make the process shorter."

"What? By a minute?" I say truthfully. He merely shrugs his shoulders and looks over the snack items placed by the register.

"That minute might make the difference from this being ice cream, or sweetened milk." I laugh and shake my head at his comment.

"You're ridiculous, you know that?" I peek up at him through the rims of my glasses to see him smirking but still eyeing the candy.

"You know that stuff's only put there for impulse buyers," I comment knowingly, referring to the assortment of chocolate bars and packs of gum.

"Well then I guess I'm living on the edge," he says while grabbing a Snickers, Twix, a pack of Reece's, and a Butterfinger. I chuckle lowly and say,

"Totally badass."

"Your total's 45.92," The clerk says to me.

"Oh, that's higher than I thought it would be…" I say lowly to myself, pulling my wallet out from my pocket. Thumbing through my money I find that I'm 2 dollars and 92 cents short. "Damn it…" I mumble.

"Running low on cash?" Sasuke asks, knowing damn well I was.

"Yeah, I guess I'll have to take something back…" I murmur, feeling slightly embarrassed and also resentful at the store for having such over priced stock.

"Here," he says, handing me three bucks. I look up at him, slightly shocked. Though I knew I shouldn't have been. Sasuke was too much of a gentleman to not do something like that for a girl. I fight back a smile as I take the few bills from his hand.

"Thanks…" I grumble, hating that I had to say that to him, yet feeling my cheeks starting to warm slightly. I hand the money to cashier and grabbed my bagged groceries.

"No problem," he answers smoothly. The worker dumps the 8 cents worth of change in my open palm.

"Have a nice day," The man says in a very insincere way. I only nod and walk away.

As I'm walking out of the store, I find Sasuke once again be by my side.

"So you were just going to make off with my change? I see how you like to play," He says in voice that was almost too suave for the statement he made.

"Here, take it, I don't need," I answer easily.

"No I don't want it now." I roll my eyes but smile. Reaching my bike, I slid the bags onto the handlebars and sit down onto the seat.

"Hey, there's someone I really want you to meet. They're right in the car and it will only take a second," he explains quickly, trying to keep me from leaving. Sighing I reply,

"I'm sorry Sasuke but I really got to go. Mom's waiting on me, and you know how she gets when I take my time," I joke with a grin. He only half smiles, but I can see the honest let down in his eyes.

"Can't you just wait a minute?" he begs, walking along side me as I walk my bike off the sidewalk.

"Really I can't. I'm sorry Sasuke." I look at him for second, scrunching my nose to try and push my glasses up. He glances at his car anxiously then back at me.

"Are you sure…?" he pleads one last time.

"Goodbye, Sasuke," I say, pushing my foot off the ground and riding away.

"Bye, I guess…"

As l lay out in the open field under the starry night sky, I couldn't help but to think of Sasuke. Many things came to mind when I thought his name, but the main one was something I wish I could ignore. _You know you like him, Kimi. Stop trying to lie to yourself about it. You must be really stupid if you honestly think you can hide something like that forever. _I sigh, angry at my own thoughts. _I'm right, I can't hide it forever… and I wont have to. Because I wont feel this way forever! _I recoil slightly, knowing that was a lie as well. _Okay, maybe I will, but still! I can't tell him! He's not into girls like that, and if I go around and say something like that to him then all I'll do his scare him away…_ I think sadly to myself. I knew I was right; there was no denying that Sasuke had very little romantic interest in girls at the time. So little, in fact, it slightly hurt me to think about it. Knowing that only confirmed that he didn't like me in the same way I did. Not in the slightest bit.

_Still, even if he doesn't, you're doing yourself no good to lie about it. Maybe if you tell him it wont ruin anything. Perhaps he'll even respect you more for telling the truth!_ I scoff, knowing that I was lying again. _Alright, no more lies. From here on out I'll be nothing but honest with myself. Even if that does mean realizing that he doesn't…_ I couldn't finish the thought. I didn't want to think it. The feeling the words would give me was something I wasn't ready to face. _No, don't think that. There's no way you can know that unless you ask! Why do you think you're his best friend? That has to count for something, right? Yeah, of coarse it does! Not just anyone can be Sasuke Uchiha's best friend! But you are, and there has to be a good reason why! _I run my fingers through the tall, thin blades of grass before coming across a round, stubby stem. _What the…?_ Rolling over onto my side I look down to see that I'd found a four-leaf clover. Smiling wildly, I pull the small plant from the soil and spin it around in my fingertips, falling back down into the swaying green blades.

_Alright, that confirms it. You're telling him tomorrow. No matter what you feel like inside, you're not backing out! You're going to march right up to him and say, "Sasuke, I like you. A lot." _I close my eyes happily and pinch the stem of the clover. _Yeah… and when you say that he'll smile back at you and say, "Really? I like you too Kimi. A lot." _

"Hey have you seen Sasuke?" I ask Naruto in the hallway at school. Just saying his name I could feel my heart racing.

"Uh yeah, I think he's at his locker…" I smile lightly and say thanks before turning around and walking down the hall toward his locker. As I walked through the crowd of students I felt my heart racing insanely fast in my chest. I tried desperately to slow it by counting and steadying my breathing, but it didn't help in the slightest bit. I rounded a corner and found myself staring down the long hall and saw him standing in front of his open locker door. My heart thumped like jackhammer as I slowly walked forward, passing by each student slowly. When I got no more than 20 feet away I thought to myself, _Alright, this is it. Just be brave, be straightforward and-_ out of a clump of students came the most gorgeous girl I'd ever seen-the same girl that had hugged Sasuke at the party, I realized. She jumped on his shoulders, making him laugh.

I watched in misery as he turned around to face her, a smile on his face that he'd never given me, a flame burning in his eyes unlike anything I'd ever gotten. The most he'd ever shown me was a weak spark. His hands embraced her face gently as he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. My books fall from my hands and clatter to the ground noisily, capturing everyone's attention immediately. Including Sauce's and the girls. But I didn't care. At first Sasuke looked at me happily, but suddenly the happiness melted into confusion.

"Kimi? Are you okay?" I hardly hear him say. I force a smile and say with a shaky voice,

"Yeah, I'm fine." Then, with what sanity I had left in me, I slowly picked up my books and walked forward to meet him.

"Well uh, Kimi, this is Jessie. Jessie, this Kimi." He introduces and it takes all the will power in me not to fall to my knees.

"Nice to meet you Kimi, Sasuke tells me great things about you," she says in a voice that made her words sound more like a song than a sentence. With my fake smile still plastered on my face I slowly shake my head.

"Has he now…?"

"Yeah Kimi this is the girl I've been trying to introduce you to. She's really just a fan_tastic_ person," he explains. I only continue to fake happiness and nod statically.

"Very nice…"

"She is, she really is. Jessie's brought the light into my dark world…" he said, a smile unlike anything I'd ever seen before illuminating his face. Then he leaned down to kiss her with such eagerness, but such love, it almost made my knees give out.

"Well I've got to go…" I whisper in such a small voice I was surprised he'd heard me.

"Alright, but we should all meet after school and get something to eat," he suggests. He stared at her with such passion it nearly killed me.

"I don't think I'll be able to make it…" I say.

"Oh come on Kimi, you owe me from when I leant you that three dollars," he says playfully. Slowly the smile begins to leak off my face and the utter pain is soon to be screaming so loudly inside my head the whole school would be sure to hear it. So quickly I look down at my feet and whisper,

"I'm sorry Sasuke I have to go…" I don't wait for him to reply, only turn around and walk away swiftly and fluently to my next class.

I slouch down at my desk and sigh, looking down at my lap. I pull the clover from my pocket and spin it between my fingers. Suddenly I realized that something didn't look quite right…squinting as I brought the plant closer to my face, I found that the godforsaken plant didn't have four leaves, hell it didn't even have three. The goddamn clover had five fucking leaves. I found myself a damn five-leaf clover. So if a three-leaf clover was nothing special, and a four-leaf was good luck, than certainly a five-leaf clover meant bad luck. Why wasn't I surprised? This was something I should've expected.

Why would he have liked someone like me in the first place? I was tall, in fact every bit as tall as him, lanky, had poor skin and uncontrollable red hair, I wore glasses because I could rarely afford contacts, I didn't have much of a figure, and to make matters worse, I was a _nerd_. A total, undeniable geek. Nobody would ever like me. Especially not someone as amazing Sasuke. I couldn't believe I'd actually fooled myself into believing that maybe I had a chance with the likes of him. He could do _so_ much better. And he did exactly that. He got something so much better than ugly, old me…

"Hey Kimi," I hear Naruto say to me, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Oh, hey Naruto…" I say softly. He smiled, ignoring the obvious heartache in my voice and said,

"I didn't get the chance to tell you this out in the hall cause you were gone so fast to see Sasuke, but you look really pretty today." My heart skipped a beat at his shocking words. My face burned red as I looked up at him through my glasses in awe.

"R-Really…?" I stutter nervously.

"Yeah! I mean, you always look pretty, but today…I don't know, I think it's something about your hair…" he says in a voice that told me he was saying the truth. My eyes watered as I looked at him in total disbelief.

"Oh Naruto…" I whisper. He looked at me with confusion in his eyes.

"Hey… hey don't cry!" He says, suddenly nervous he'd said something wrong. I smiled and shot up out of my seat and threw myself onto him in a tight hug.

"Oh thank you Naruto! Thank you so much!" I cry into his shoulder, the tears streaming uncontrollably. I felt his arms wrap slowly and hesitantly around my waist.

"Sure…thing?" I smile and tighten my grip on him.

"Thank you…" I whisper, burying my face in his neck. "You don't know how much that meant to me…"

"Well… you're welcome!" He beamed cheerily. And then for a moment, I forgot about the gut wrenching pain that had just been inflicted upon my soul. For a moment, I'd forgotten the hear-stabbing feeling that had utterly consumed my body not but a few minutes ago. And for a moment… I thought maybe, just maybe, a five leaf clover isn't bad luck, and isn't good luck. A five-leaf clover is something that gives you more than what you want, but what you need. And what I needed… what I needed was someone like Narrator. If just for a moment.


End file.
